Yesterday, I was a sub teacher at one of the local high
schools.
When I was eating lunch in the staff break room, I noticed
that someone had posted a poem on one of the walls.
I woke
myself up
Because we ain’t got an alarm clock
Dug in the dirty clothes basket,
Cause ain’t nobody washed my uniform
Brushed my hair and teeth in the dark,
Cause the lights ain’t on
Even got my baby sister ready,
Cause my mama wasn’t home.
Got us both to school on time,
To eat us a good breakfast.
Then when I got to class the teacher fussed
Cause I ain’t got no pencil
I had not seen this poem before, and I was not familiar with
the author.
Here’s “the rest of the story”:
A viral poem about poverty in underprivileged schools
has caused a flutter online after it was shared widely by people believing its
simple language was penned by a student in Baltimore, US.
It was claimed the poem, “Cause I Ain’t Got a Pencil,”
was written by a student at Baltimore City Public Schools, in the mid-Atlantic
US state of Maryland.
After the poem did the rounds on social media,
38-year-old professional author and poet Joshua Dickerson, who actually wrote
it, took to Twitter to set the record straight.
“My poem has been ‘written’ by a couple different
people at this point,” the Atlanta man said.
“I’m not a student in Baltimore City Schools. It’s one
of those Internet things that keeps getting shared. Outside of the fake Obama
beard, I was the hottest trending fake news."
Dickerson said his poem, which he wrote in April 2014,
resonated with many and reflected “without a shadow of a doubt” the scenes that
would have played out in Baltimore schools, so he understands why many assume
it was written by a student.
The poet said his inspiration for the poem came after
watching a heartbreaking incident at an Atlanta school, where a child asked his
teacher for a pencil.
The teacher said the student could borrow the pencil
only if he removed his shoe and left it as collateral.
“The child took off the shoe and he had a dirty sock
on and it caused the other students in the class to laugh at him,” Dickerson
shared.
“I wrote a story about what I imagined happened prior
to that moment.”
The author said the message he was hoping to make in
his piece was “you must continue to fight, regardless of circumstances.”
When I left the school, one of the students gave me a
pumpkin pie that the school kitchen had made that afternoon> Initially, I
was under the impression that teachers were the only group that got a free pie,
until I noticed that a lot students had pies also.
The poem, and the free pies, reminded me that all of
us have a lot to be thankful on this Thanksgiving Day. However, the poem is
also a reminder that not everyone is as fortunate as us.
At various schools in the district, I have come in
contact with students who belonged to a program called YOTO, which is the acronym
for “youth on their own”, a program designed to help kids who are not living
with a parent or guardian. In some cases, their status is due to a custody
situation, but that were also some whose parents were deported.
Youth On Their Own (YOTO) is a dropout prevention program that supports the high school graduation and continued success of youth experiencing homelessness in Pima County. The organization was founded in 1986 when Ann Young, a guidance counselor in the Amphitheater School District, noticed that talented and motivated students were dropping out of school due to homelessness and being forced to live on their own without a parent or guardian. Inspired by the students’ tenacity and willingness to stay in school, other school counselors, teachers, volunteers, and community members came together to form YOTO with the goal of helping students graduate.
After consulting with her fellow teachers, Young’s initial
idea was to buy a home for a group of homeless teenage girls. She presented
this proposal, along with the stories of the students she aimed to help, to a
group gathered at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church dedicated to assisting
Tucson’s homeless community. People were appalled at the situations they were
in, and jumped at the opportunity to lend them a hand. Soon, Young had an army
of volunteers. She even managed to raise $80,000 in a single morning, thanks to
the generosity of the congregation.
The
money funded a group residence for homeless girls. Known as the St. Andrew’s
Friendly Environment (SAFE) House, it quickly became apparent that SAFE House
was not large enough to accommodate all of the students who needed services. It
became increasingly expensive and was too much for one volunteer parent to
handle. The community stepped forward again, and many families volunteered to
take care of these students in need. It was an unexpected check from a New York
City charitable foundation, though, that launched a stipend program to greatly
increase the aid available to homeless teens.
Young’s
experience with the SAFE House, which closed after two years, encouraged her to
further expand the program. She applied for grants and spread the word about
the charitable work the organization was doing. At this point, it was known as
the Pima County Homeless Teen Project — a marketing specialist later dubbed it
Youth on Their Own — and Young knew that if she wanted to continue her project,
she would have to apply to become a full-fledged 501(c)(3) nonprofit
foundation. After successfully gaining the designation, YOTO applied for and
won a grant from Angel Charity for $100,000 for the stipend program in 1990.
That funding coupled with a community-wide advertising campaign gave YOTO the
exposure it needed to really take off and become the program it is today.
Since
then, over 16,000 homeless and compromised students have been empowered to stay
in school and pursue opportunities for self-sufficiency.
https://www.ncregister.com/news/the-morality-economics-and-politics-of-mass-deportation
Unfortunately, the number of teens in the program is likely to
increase dramatically after January 20 due to the incoming administration’s cruel
and utterly stupid mass deportation program.
The folks who voted for the wrong political party in November
will soon come to realize that the program will not lead to the economic benefits
they thought that it would.
Approximately 11 million unauthorized
immigrants currently reside in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center. Republican
vice-presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, puts the figure at 25 million. Other estimates fall in
between the two.
Regardless of the number, former
president Donald Trump has vowed to launch the largest deportation program in American
history. In a recent interview with The New York
Times, Vance said it would be “certainly reasonable to deport around a
million people per year.” The undertaking enjoys broad public support, at least
for now — a CBS/YouGov poll from July found that 62% of Americans favor mass
deportations, including 53% of Hispanic voters.
Vice President Kamala Harris favors a
bipartisan approach to fixing border security by extending restrictions on
asylum claims and establishing legal pathways for eligible immigrants.
In September, Pope Francis remarked about “those
who systematically work by all means to drive away migrants,” saying that
“this, when done knowingly and deliberately, is a grave sin.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
teaches that good government has two duties in this regard: to welcome the
foreigner out of charity and respect; and to secure one’s border and enforce
the law for the sake of the common good (2241).
For Hannah Kling, professor of data analytics and macroeconomics
at Belmont Abbey College, mass deportations “would be extremely disruptive
economically.”
Above
all, Kling fears that mass deportations would decrease overall economic
growth, which would harm everyone in the long run, including natural-born
citizens. In her view, a high number of immigrants in the economy leads to
economic growth, which has positive benefits not only for consumers, but also
other workers. There isn’t a fixed amount of jobs over which citizens and
noncitizens compete, but rather an ever-increasing number of jobs that
increases to the extent that individuals and businesses are productive.
“People who work in landscaping or
food service and the like help those companies become more productive
companies,” she said. “It wasn’t that immigrant workers were crowding out U.S.
citizens from jobs. Economic growth is about increasing the economic pie that
we split up among people. When more people are part of that system, we can make
the pie bigger.”
A recent Bloomberg analysis shows that Trump’s
deportations and border crackdown could reduce the nation’s GDP by more
than 3% by 2028.
Along with reduced overall economic
growth, some economists have voiced concern that mass deportations would lead
to increased government spending and reduced tax revenues, a combination
of factors that could balloon the national deficit.
According to a 2024 study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic
Policy (ITEP), undocumented immigrants paid a total of $96.7 billion
in federal, state and local taxes in 2022. Meanwhile, the American Immigration Council estimated that it could cost
$88 billion annually to deport 1 million people a year.
For Boston College’s Heyer, the numbers simply don’t add up.
“Estimates
suggest the mass-deportation plan would cost at least $500 billion to
implement, with annual losses of $126 billion in taxes and a reduction in the
GDP of $5 trillion over 10 years,” she said. “This confounds the ‘economic
threat’ claims frequently made to oppose immigrants, whose work, studies show,
offer a net benefit to the U.S. economy and have increased jobs in recent
years."
Many have argued in the past that Americans won’t do certain
“undesirable” jobs in agriculture, hospitality and construction often done by
illegal immigrants. Mass deportations, the argument goes, will cause labor
shortages that would have the potential to significantly disrupt supply lines
and raise costs for businesses and consumers.
The other bad idea being promoted by the incoming
administration are tariffs.
President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed heavy tariffs for goods
imported from Mexico, Canada and China could have a major impact on items from
tomatoes to car parts in Arizona, which shares a significant trading
relationship with its neighbor to the south.
It's
still more than 50 days until Trump is sworn in for a second term, but his
economic proposals are already causing commotion across the globe. Trump tied
his tariff threat to immigration, posting on social media Monday, Nov. 25 that
he’d “sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on
ALL products coming into the United States. “This Tariff will remain in effect
until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop
this Invasion of our Country! Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right
and power to easily solve this long simmering problem,” Trump wrote. He also
pitched an additional 10% tariff on goods from China.
Tariffs that Trump is proposing would
affect the country’s international trading partners, but they’d also be felt
inside states like Arizona. Much of the produce that fills American grocery
stores in the winter months is grown in Mexico and passes through Arizona’s
southern border.
The largest share of Arizona imports
comes from Mexico, totaling $11.8 billion in 2023. Imports from Canada also
reached billions of dollars last year, according to data on Arizona-Mexico
Economic Indicators compiled by the University of
Arizona.
The link below goes into more details on the industries that
will see price increases, but the main ones are tomatoes, wiring for cars,
peppers, grapes, wood products, and baked goods.
In the past, I’ve written a few stories about some homeless
people who I have met personally:
https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2009/11/have-good-day.html
https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2010/10/thin-red-line.html
https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2023/04/tough-times-do-not-last-but-tough.html
Recently, the Boston Globe published an article about
a former journalist who eventually would up homeless due to bouts of depression.
He finally was saved b a sympathetic family and a GoFundMe page.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/11/28/metro/homeless-former-journalist-patrick-fealey-rhode-island/
The election of November was a traumatic event for a lot of
people.
According
to a recent CBS poll, 50% of the Democrats are scared of what Trump will do as
president, and another 35% are concerned.
On the other hand, 95% of the Republican voters are
either excited or optimistic about him.
If there’s a Thanksgiving when politics could come up,
it’s probably this one. The United States just had an emotional presidential
election, and the country remains fiercely divided over the best ways to govern
and who the right leaders are to do it.
President-elect Donald Trump is
already taking steps to make major changes to economic policy, immigration and
how government works. He has said he’ll introduce new tariffs on goods coming
in from some countries, will start mass deportations and is trying to knock
down checks and balances to make sure no one gets in his way.
And on that note, I have one more thing to say:
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